MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 25 



STEAM HOISTING MACHINE. 



THIS machine is intended to be applied to the loading and discharg- 

 ing of cargoes from vessels, and has been so used for some time by a 

 stevedore of Philadelphia. The motion of the engine is communicat- 

 ed to a fly-wheel shaft, which carries a small pinion gearing into a 

 large wheel. The winding barrel to which this hoisting-rope is at- 

 tached is locked to the shaft of the large wheel by means of a driving 

 friction coupling, which is thrown into or out of motion by a lever; 

 and the motion of the drum when free from the shaft of the wheel is 

 controlled by a friction-band, which is tightened or slackened by a 

 brake. The machine requires but one person to attend to it, and is 

 capable of hoisting twelve hogsheads of tobacco from the hold of a 

 vessel, and turning them out on the wharf, in ten minutes, or it can 

 discharge three hundred bales of cotton per hour. In case the article 

 being raised should strike on the combings of the hatchway, the engi- 

 neer has only to slacken the brake, and it is lowered without stopping 

 the engine, so as to clear the obstruction, and then by tightening the 

 brake again the ascending motion is restored. In lowering, the arti- 

 cles can be stopped at any point with great ease. The machine is on 

 wheels, and can be moved from place to place by a single horse. 

 Journal of Franklin Institute for September. 



EXTRAORDINARY SPEED. 



A NEW locomotive has lately been placed on the York and New- 

 castle Railroad, whose performance, both with regard to speed and 

 to power, surpasses all previous experiments. It regularly runs 45 

 miles -in 40 minutes with a train of cars, and it is computed that 

 as soon as the new rails are laid down the distance will be accom- 

 plished with ease in half an hour, that is, at the surprising rate of 90 

 miles an hour. The velocity, although the greatest yet attained, is 

 accomplished with an entire freedom from that apparent oscillating 

 and undulating motion which characterizes outside-cy Under engines. 

 Its arrangements are entirely new ; the top of the boiler, which is four 

 feet in diameter, being only seven feet nine inches above the rails. 

 The cylinders are 16 inches in diameter; the stroke of the piston is 

 20 inches ; the driving-wheels, are 6 feet, and the carrying-wheels 4 

 feet in diameter, and are entirely of wrought iron. The eccentrics 

 and gearing also being outside of the wheels, render the whole engine 

 compact, simple, and easy of access. London Mining Journal. 



SAFETY-FUSE FOR BOILERS. 



MR. A. STILLMAN, of the New York Novelty Iron- Works, has pa- 

 tented an invention for indicating the lowness of water in steam-boil- 

 ers, which is said to have proved very satisfactory, after several trials. 

 One or more tubes are passed through the upper surface of the boiler, 

 reaching down to the top of the flues, or fire-tubes ; they are about an 

 inch in diameter inside, and are fastened securely down by a screw- 



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